Ronald Jack ScarlettMBE (22 March 1911 – 9 July 2002) was a New Zealand paleozoologist.
Early life and family
Scarlett was born at Stoke, near Nelson, on 22 March 1911 to Walter Andrew Scarlett and Lilian Elsie (née Cresswell). He was the oldest child of four brothers and four sisters. His father was an impoverished sawyer and so the family was forced to move around the upper South Island to find work in sawmills. Ron Scarlett attended six primary schools until he began to work at age 14. He had jobs on farms, in a sawmill, as a labourer, as golf greenkeeper, as gardener, as goldminer and later as trucker for a coalmine. During World War II, he spent some time as a conscientious objector in the Hanmer Springs Conscientious Objectors camp.
Scarlett was a well-known stamp, coin and postcard collector. His extensive collections of New Zealand and Pacific Island postcards are now with the Canterbury Museum in Christchurch, including an extensive collection of postcards showing views of the Chatham Islands, which he had visited many times.
